Never being one to need encouragement, we have sown our royal oats deep inside this hearty stout.

At first its toasty, chocolatey aroma dances around your senses, evoking thoughts of a majestic mocha.

Then once nestled against your eagerly anticipating lips, its velvety viscosity will embrace you, smoother than a sovereignly sophisticate. Richness will reign, as you enjoy this delicious ebony elixir

Great as an after-dinner treat or with a cheese board, this is filled with coffee, mocha, dark chocolate and toasty flavours.

So, What could possibly go wrong?

The presentation is excellent, sharp Silver crisp on a black background. Although my old man eyes struggle the small stuff it is undoubtedly an outstanding label .

It’s not as deep on the aroma as I expected when opened it, there’s a reasonable chocolate note in there..

The pour is a muddy brown affair, but it sits in the glass with a lovely head of mocha coffee head that sits firm on top. I approve.

It seems to have a high carbonation, or higher than I think I’m comfortable with, and it feels like you get mouth full of bubbles that add nothing to the experience.

The overall mouthfeel is nice though, with the stronger flavours in no hurry to rush through to a firm end that wavers towards a dryness but end up sitting with some lovely sweet underlying things.

It is a lovely experience beer.

Of course it warms as I sit and ponder and it does flatten out somewhat and there’s that unwanted and pesky slightly sour note, and there’s a vague grittiness to it. it’s like perhaps a poorly made cold brew coffee, there’s just a little green in there. I realise that this isn’t from Coffee but the malts, but who’s had a cold brew cup of roasted malt?

There’s no obvious alcohol tang in this, and I reminded myself that this is at the 10% level the equivalent of two-ish domestic or ‘international’ lagers. I think I’d rather have this, it’s just better.

The pdubyah-o-meter rates this as8 of its things from the thing. It really is quite pleasing with a lovely array of flavorous that develop and let you enjoy them all, but there is a grittiness about it that I didn’t expect, and that I took to be part of the journey.

The double dip review

Where did I get it? Liquorland had them, I’m sure they’re in all the good places

Am I enjoying it? I am, it’s the start of an evening beer, and I’e no regerts.

Would I have another? I have a Barrel Aged stout in the fridge in a grower so I’ll see how that goes first.

Would I share with a friend on a porch and set the world to rights? There’s nothing outstanding in this, other than it being an excellent and enjoyable beer, it’s of it’s style and it does it very well. Perhaps with Cheese and Coffee next time.

Sadly if you listen to this you’ll find a mostly saccharine and unremarkable set of music from a very talented individual. It’s like background polite music that didn’t engage me enough for me to want to play it again, and I played it twice to be sure.

Avalanche City is the stage name of indie folk musician Dave Baxter from Auckland, New Zealand.

IMPERIAL STOUT

Imperial stouts are usually extremely dark brown to black in color with flavors that are intensely malty, deeply roasted and sometimes with accents of dark fruit (raisin, fig) or milk sourness. The bitterness is typically medium and often the low sie of that. Imperial stouts are strong and often exceed 8% by volume.